Angle works to soothe nervous GOP

Sharron Angle is coming to Washington for two days of meetings designed to reassure worried Republican leaders that she will not let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid define her as an eccentric right-wing extremist before her campaign against Reid even gets off the ground.

Since Angle’s victory in last Tuesday’s primary, Republicans in Nevada and Washington have become increasingly concerned that the former assemblywoman has not responded aggressively enough to attacks Reid began only minutes after the polls closed. They said that unless she does, Reid could create an indelible image of someone too “extreme” for the independent voters in Nevada who will quite likely determine November’s election results.

Story Continued Below

“If you start off in a hole, it’s really hard to dig your way out of it,” said Chuck Muth, a former executive director of the Nevada Republican Party.

Several Republicans also told POLITICO that Angle’s decision to do selected interviews with conservative media outlets — avoiding even the local press in Nevada — is creating the impression that she is nervous about some of her more conservative views being picked apart.

Larry Hart, a media consultant for Angle, acknowledged that’s a “bad perception ... that has to change.” But he defended his campaign’s media strategy and said that Reid has also avoided sit-down interviews with media outlets to talk about his 24-year record in Washington.

“It’s Harry Reid that’s hiding from the press,” Hart said.

The Reid campaign signaled where it was going on primary night, when it released a document titled “Sharron’s Wacky Angles,” highlighting a number of statements she’s made over the past dozen years, including comments questioning the benefits given to two working parents, criticizing unemployment insurance in the state, equating drug dealers with the Sept. 11 hijackers, raising concerns about alcohol legalization and linking breast cancer and abortion.

After accusing her of wanting to “wipe out” Social Security and Medicare, Reid’s team is zeroing in on comments Angle made about wanting to privatize veterans’ health care — as well as her suggestion that there could be an armed revolution, depending on how things turn out in November.

Democrats are also eager to point out statements suggesting she may be a member of the Oath Keepers, an organization of military members, veterans, firefighters and police sworn, among other things, to refuse orders “to disarm the American people.”